it still makes me laugh that most people use "region free" as a cover up for their true intentions

Do you own a 3DS? That stance is hard to understand when you both a) own a 3DS and b) live in the UK like your profile states. I assume you are exclusively interested in Nintendo's own games then?

After all, the support by western developers is pretty much non-existent. The 3DS only has its Japanese games going for it, but in this day and age many interesting games are even struggling just to see a release in the US at least. Europe? That's another matter all together and most niche publishers don't seem to look at the European markets as more than an afterthought.

It's double frustrating. Not only do we have to worry about games getting a release in English at all, if a game sees an English release we also have to hope that by some kind of miracle it'll also see a European release. Preferably not a year late. Yeah, I belong to the strange group who'd like to play DS: Overclocked for example. Was released in the US in August 2011 and it was released in Europe in... oh, it's going to be released next February. 1 1/2 years after its US release, 2 years after its original Japanese release. Cool.

Do you own a 3DS? That stance is hard to understand when you both a) own a 3DS and b) live in the UK like your profile states. I assume you are exclusively interested in Nintendo's own games then?

After all, the support by western developers is pretty much non-existent. The 3DS only has its Japanese games going for it, but in this day and age many interesting games are even struggling just to see a release in the US at least. Europe? That's another matter all together and most niche publishers don't seem to look at the European markets as more than an afterthought.

It's double frustrating. Not only do we have to worry about games getting a release in English at all, if a game sees an English release we also have to hope that by some kind of miracle it'll also see a European release. Preferably not a year late. Yeah, I belong to the strange group who'd like to play DS: Overclocked for example. Was released in the US in August 2011 and it was released in Europe in... oh, it's going to be released next February. 1 1/2 years after its US release, 2 years after its original Japanese release. Cool.

I already anticipate to play SMT4 in 2015.

That's it ! Code of Princess still not in Europe. No Etrian Odyssey 4, and I still want to play Devil Survivor Overclocked. But what will happens with SMT4 ?

it still makes me laugh that most people use "region free" as a cover up for their true intentions

I'm moving to Europe in just a couple of months. I've already sunk a lot of money into the 3DS (both the original and XL hardware revisions and lots of software) but I won't be able to use those machines where I'm moving. I'm either going to have to spend a whole lot more to import games from the US or I'm going to have to buy a third 3DS system for European games.

On top of that, I can read Japanese and enjoy playing Japanese games. With the 3DS taking off in that region there are lots of opportunities to enjoy such games available but if I want to take part in that I'd have to buy yet another system.

The 3DS is a handheld. People travel with handhelds. The idea that you're locked out of buying games from other regions is more frustrating with a handheld than with any console.

it still makes me laugh that most people use "region free" as a cover up for their true intentions

After the PSP was hacked,we all know, the game sales went trough the roof. After DS was hacked, noone cared about flash cards where you have been able to own over 50 DS games. Hacked consoles have been always for the greater good of developers.

I'm moving to Europe in just a couple of months. I've already sunk a lot of money into the 3DS (both the original and XL hardware revisions and lots of software) but I won't be able to use those machines where I'm moving. I'm either going to have to spend a whole lot more to import games from the US or I'm going to have to buy a third 3DS system for European games.

On top of that, I can read Japanese and enjoy playing Japanese games. With the 3DS taking off in that region there are lots of opportunities to enjoy such games available but if I want to take part in that I'd have to buy yet another system.

The 3DS is a handheld. People travel with handhelds. The idea that you're locked out of buying games from other regions is more frustrating with a handheld than with any console.

I agree region locking sucks, so why do you support it? Quit buying region locked consoles and region locked games.

I agree region locking sucks, so why do you support it? Quit buying region locked consoles and region locked games.

The games are my weakness. I'd love to be able to write off the 3DS as a whole (though I did buy all of that hardware/software before knowing that we were moving) but there are too many good games that will no doubt appear on the platform that I don't want to miss.

The games are my weakness. I'd love to be able to write off the 3DS as a whole (though I did buy all of that hardware/software before knowing that we were moving) but there are too many good games that will no doubt appear on the platform that I don't want to miss.

I hear ya. One of these days, though, someone's going to release a console that stays locked, and the region locking situation won't change until we tell Sony/Nintendo/MS that region locking will cost them money.

The games are my weakness. I'd love to be able to write off the 3DS as a whole (though I did buy all of that hardware/software before knowing that we were moving) but there are too many good games that will no doubt appear on the platform that I don't want to miss.

There are so many games that is a non-issue. I have a gaming PC and a PS3, both technically region-free, and I don't have time to play even half of the releases I want. No need for me to support bad business practices.

Oh yes this most definitely...tho it would be needed if nintendo and other companies added a freaking sound test to their games.

And beta stuff is a must too.

Mostly depends on the director. I'm pretty Sakurai very well know, as a VG music lover, that there are peope out there who work to ripping VG music, always around the red line with piracy. There is always a sound test, without annoying sfx in his games. At least unlockable.

Further than that, by paying $60 or even 70€ for a Wii U game, I would like to fully enjoy the OST by having, for example, a Nintendo eShop UTunes with free access to the soundtracks of the games I registered. But this is an idea a little too much forward thinking ^^

I'm moving to Europe in just a couple of months. I've already sunk a lot of money into the 3DS (both the original and XL hardware revisions and lots of software) but I won't be able to use those machines where I'm moving. I'm either going to have to spend a whole lot more to import games from the US or I'm going to have to buy a third 3DS system for European games.

On top of that, I can read Japanese and enjoy playing Japanese games. With the 3DS taking off in that region there are lots of opportunities to enjoy such games available but if I want to take part in that I'd have to buy yet another system.

The 3DS is a handheld. People travel with handhelds. The idea that you're locked out of buying games from other regions is more frustrating with a handheld than with any console.

I suppose that means you'll be also working in europe than? If so, importing games from the US isn't actually that expensiv. most of the time, it's even cheaper than buying it locally. Even if the Euro isn't as strong as it used to be, you still have a small advantage paying with it for dollar prices (same goes for pounds). Half of my ds library consists of us games, and I haven't paid more than 20€ shipping included for any of them.

I am not sure how I feel about homebrew. I'd like to import more niche stuff, thats for sure, but if hacking the system to be able to import those nice games means that localised niche games suffer form piracy and thus even less of them will make it over on the long run... not sure if I'd want that to happen.

I suppose that means you'll be also working in europe than? If so, importing games from the US isn't actually that expensiv. most of the time, it's even cheaper than buying it locally. Even if the Euro isn't as strong as it used to be, you still have a small advantage paying with it for dollar prices (same goes for pounds). Half of my ds library consists of us games, and I haven't paid more than 20€ shipping included for any of them.

I am not sure how I feel about homebrew. I'd like to import more niche stuff, thats for sure, but if hacking the system to be able to import those nice games means that localised niche games suffer form piracy and thus even less of them will make it over on the long run... not sure if I'd want that to happen.

Oh really? What's the best source to import from?

I'll be living and working in France and I've been concerned about how I would go about getting new releases.

This is an international gaming enthusiasts forum... Import locking DOES mean a lot to a lot of people here. No one likes feeling left out, and threads where a bunch of people getting to play the game months and/or at all when you can't can be frustrating as hell.

The way I see it, importing does the most "harm" across Europe. Solution? F*** Europe and at least let us Yanks import Japanese titles ;)

I'll be living and working in France and I've been concerned about how I would go about getting new releases.

http://www.videogamesplus.ca/ can be recommended. They've got hacked last year, so if you are worried about the safety of your data you should be careful. It's pretty much the best site to import games from NA, though...

You would be paying about 23€-30€ for a new 3DS game (excluding shipping) ordering from there. Cheaper than buying locally in any case, even if just slightly. (You might need to pay customs, though. I don't know how that's regulated in France)

I'll be living and working in France and I've been concerned about how I would go about getting new releases.

Depends on the game. I buy most of my imports from ebay (new and sealed) or vg.ca. Shipping times can range from 5 days to 3 weeks.
Sometimes even amazon.uk/it/de/fr/sp sells us versions.
I wouldn't worry to much. There is also a pretty good import store in paris somewhere. At least Gaf said so.

After the PSP was hacked,we all know, the game sales went trough the roof. After DS was hacked, noone cared about flash cards where you have been able to own over 50 DS games. Hacked consoles have been always for the greater good of developers.

This was actually my biggest motivation. Having all your games with you on one cart is amazing. DS was my favorite system because of this

I have a DS flash card somewhere. It got plenty of use, but the truth is I buy lots of DS games and it feels wrong not playing them. So it acted more as a "demo" device and a decent NES emulator. My friends? Yeah, they were done buying DS software forever :(

There are so many games that is a non-issue. I have a gaming PC and a PS3, both technically region-free, and I don't have time to play even half of the releases I want. No need for me to support bad business practices.

There are people who put their passion for actual games above things such as business practices. Shocking, I know.

There are so many games that is a non-issue. I have a gaming PC and a PS3, both technically region-free, and I don't have time to play even half of the releases I want. No need for me to support bad business practices.

I'll never play everything I want to, of course, but I also can't play games just to pass time. I'm way too passionate about these things to not play the specific games that I want to.

There are so many games that is a non-issue. I have a gaming PC and a PS3, both technically region-free, and I don't have time to play even half of the releases I want. No need for me to support bad business practices.

It also depends on the types of games you as a consumer enjoy most. A ton of people including myself probably really enjoy Nintendo products the most, so you get those really phenomenal games on platforms with stupid fucking things like region locking.

Did Nintendo actually want to put in region locking or was it pressure from publishers?
Or maybe it was a by-product of having only one eShop store per region?

Even if it is a pressure from publishers, there is no reliable data to say region locking your games improves their sales in a specific region - importers are by definition not casual gamers. They will import maybe 500-1000 copies at most. This is negligible in the grand scale of things. On the other hand there are examples, Demons Souls being the most notable, where cross-region importation actually raised the visibility of the game and made it released in another region.

Region locking is one of business practices you really cannot justify with a sound argument. Yes, it gives you more control over the product, but that doesn't translate to anything. However for many business executives this is one of the things they have in their pretty flowcharts, even when they don't understand exactly the purpose of it.